Hosted computing services that are accessible over the internet may provide computer users with a wide variety of functionality, such as web search, maps, e-mail applications, and the like. These centralized services, whether delivered via a web browser or stand-alone application (or app) at a client device, are powerful because they can extend functionality across many different geographically-dispersed users, and can obtain large amounts of information about various aspects of the users and employ such information to provide functionality that would not be available on systems that operate, for example, within a single corporate organization. Certain of these advantages are achieved through what is known as “network effects.”
Various uses can be made of such networked services. For example, people use social networks to identify and communicate with people who have similar interests. Employees may use search engines to find information that is relevant to the conduct of their particular job. Others may use job search services to find job opportunities that are posted for them, or managers may try to determine if they are offering competitive salaries and benefits. Moreover, various users may seek general content, such as information to help them in doing their day-to-day jobs. And competitive intelligence professionals may search many locations in order to get information about competitive companies (including information relating to specific improvements), such as to benchmark their own company against those other companies and then improve their company accordingly. In addition, where high levels of standardization can be achieved, automation and outsourcing of activities or processes may be achieved.
Such uses generally involve making comparisons between two objects, whether those objects are people, organizations, positions within an organization, work output or product, or processes or tasks to be performed within an organization. The comparisons may be difficult to make or inaccurate because organizations have many different forms, so that one organization does not map well onto another, and vice-versa. Also, even where there might be an accurate mapping, such mapping can be difficult and additional problems of comparison can emerge because different organizations may provide different labels to the same object, such as by providing different job titles to positions that do the same sort of work.